Everex gPC

It's cheap. You don't have to worry about Windows viruses and malware. Available at over 600 Wal-Mart stores and online.

Cons

Ethernet "Internet Connection Required." Modem is nonfunctional (for now). 1,280-by-800 resolution forced by internal graphics. Adobe Flash installation can be confusing for a novice. Google search window goes to WebRunner, not the expected Firefox. Programs written for Mac or Windows will not run.

Bottom Line

The Everex gPC is ostensibly either a "green PC" or the "Google PC." While it mostly fills the first description (without all the certification), the second is held up in legal wrangling and lackluster implementation. The gPC is not the alternative to Windows or Mac OS X it's cracked up to be; it's very frustrating to use.

When the Everex gPC ($199 direct, without monitor) was announced, it received some fanfare as a bargain-subbasement "green" Linux-based PC, or the (quite unofficial) "Google PC," available at your local Wal-Mart. Everex, a firm known for producing cheap laptops for big-box stores, supposedly designed it for nontechnical yet Web-savvy users who like to go on the Web to see their friends' pages on social-networking sites or YouTube videos. Google and Google Apps are a central part of the gPC's raison d'être, but thus far the gPC is not a Google-licensed product. "G" also stands for green, since the gPC uses a low-powered VIA C7 processor. But as with the Google aspect, gPC's energy-efficient status is to some extent smoke and mirrors, as I'll explain later. The gPC does have a green-colored theme and start-up screen, so it has that much going for it. But the good news ends there.

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The gPC was slapped together to sell to Web-savvy people who have very little pocket money. My advice to these people? Save up for just a little longer and buy something for at least $450 that runs Windows Vista, or get the ASUS Eee PC 4G laptop. This advice also goes for tech-savvy readers looking for a simple Internet PC for Grandma or Uncle Phil, or for a really cheap PC to tinker with and rebuild. This definitely isn't that PC. It's touted as a system for those who don't want to deal with installing Linux, and don't want the expense of a Vista or Mac OS X PC. In the end, though, it has so many shortcomings I would have a problem recommending it to anyone, regardless of their tech smarts (or lack thereof).

Hardware-wise, the gPC is true to the adage "you get what you pay for," and at least in this case, no compliment is intended. $199 buys you a low-power, relatively low-performing VIA C7-D processor, 512MB of memory, a 80GB hard drive (much more than the 4GB in a Zonbu or Eee PC), and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive. While this is enough to run Ubuntu Linux, it is not going to run it speedily. The upside is that the processor consumes only 20W peak by itself, and during use, the PC did keep its overall power usage to the 20W-to-50W range. Add an LCD monitor and power consumption can go above 80W, but this isn't bad considering that a more powerful business PC marketed as energy-efficient, such as the HP rp5700, can use around 50W at idle by itself. More power-hungry gaming or multimedia desktops and large-screen monitors can consume upward of 500W to 1KW. Some nits here: The setup sheet rightly notes that, for the PC to fully function, you need a broadband Internet connection with an Ethernet cable. The picture on the setup sheet, however, points to the included modem (probably a normal 56K fax modem, but nonfunctioning; the gOS team is working on a modem driver), and the close-up shows a modem cable, not an Ethernet cable.

The built-in VIA UniChrome Pro IGP graphics chip was able to handle the 1,280-by-1,024, 17-inch monitor that Everex sent me for testing. Curiously, the gPC defaulted to 1,280-by-800 resolution, cutting off parts of the screen and making the clock an oval instead of a circle. I was able to set the correct resolution, but the machine reverted to 1,280 by 800 after a reboot. You can set 1,280 by 1,024 as a default resolution in the gPC's configuration, but that's a step that may not be apparent to a novice user.

Another nit to pick about gPC's green claims: While the VIA processor is low-power-consuming and Everex claims the gPC is fully RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) compliant, it has no Energy Star rating or EPEAT certification. These days, I would consider these certifications necessary to keep the energy efficiency hounds happy.

You could buy this PC to use for a hardware project, such as for installing Windows Home Server or another flavor of Linux. For those purposes, however, I would recommend you just use that old Pentium III box in your closet, or maybe a PC that costs just a little more with 1GB of memory and a higher-performing processor. You'll hit the capability ceiling of the gPC setup real quick: Launching applications like Firefox was slow, even in the out-of-box state when a PC is expected to be at its fastest.

The gPC runs the "gOS" operating system, an implementation of Ubuntu Linux with an Enlightenment environment (a Google-oriented theme and graphical user interface on top of Linux). While installing Linux is intimidating to the novice user, when correctly implemented and preinstalled it's quite usable as a Web platform and for basic use. The gPC does come with the codecs for MP3 and DVD playback, and with the OS preinstalled you don't have to worry about finding drivers for your PC and working with ISO images. But that's where the benefits end. Needless to say, programs written for Mac OS X or Windows that you can buy online or in a retail store won't work on the Linux-based gPCit's mainly a Web-based PC.

That said, gOS seems to be a product put together by a marketing team rather than by experienced developers. For example, the gPC touts its "conceptual Google OS" all over its marketing materials, yet while we were preparing for this review, company representatives warned us against calling it a "Google PC." (Indeed, gOS is made by Good OS, a company separate from, and not endorsed by, Google Inc.) The gPC's list of apps looks good: Firefox browser, Meebo for instant messaging, Gmail and Thunderbird for e-mail, Skype, Xing, and Rhythmbox media players, and OpenOffice. There is also a set of featured links to Google Docs, Google News, Google Maps, YouTube (more on that later), Wikipedia, Blogger, Google shopping, and the gOS online tech-support community based on forum-like Q-and-A areas. These links and apps are arranged on a Mac OS Xlike row of icons across the bottom of the screen. As on the Mac, they launch with a single click. It's flashy, with a visual "pulse" when you mouse over each icon, but it's ultimately a cheap copy, since there is no indication if you've actually started one of the apps until after it completely loads. I started Firefox three times because I wasn't sure I had clicked the icon. It looks jazzy but it lacks polish.

Another example: There is a Google Search text-entry box at the top of the screen, which opens up a new window with your Google search results, as you would expect. The results window, however, uses the primitive WebRunner browser instead of the default Firefox browser. The WebRunner search window doesn't have an address bar or navigation controls, so while it may be useful for dictionary-style one-shot lookups, it is totally useless if you're a stream-of-consciousness surfer who likes to search for a term and then follow hyperlinks wherever they lead. You can't go back to the original search window, nor open a second tab as you can in Firefox, so backtracking is not easy. Fortunately, Firefox has its own Google search field, but it's not linked to the "Google Search" on the gPC's desktop. This makes the Google search box on the desktop unintuitive and less than conducive to Web surfing.

The links to Wikipedia and Google Maps brought up those pages in Firefox, so they're true shortcuts. Searching Wikipedia and Google Maps in Firefox on the gPC was like it is on any other PC or Mac: fairly uneventful.

When I first went to YouTube using the gPC's shortcut, YouTube told me that Flash wasn't installed and tried to shift me over to Adobe's Flash install page. Unfortunately, there were three choices there (.tar.gz, .rpm, or YUM), all of which could be intimidating to the novice user. Heck, it's intimidating to anyone accustomed to Windows or Mac, though it's familiar to users of Linux. It would've been nice if the folks at Everex or gOS preinstalled Flash support, since upgrading is infinitely easier than an initial install. If you're tech-savvy and for some reason recommend this system to non-techie friends, expect to receive your first (or second) "tech support" call when they reach this point. I finally installed Flash with Firefox's built-in plug-in installer after visiting MySpace.com and once again not being able to view Flash content. In hindsight, I probably should've done this from inside Firefox's plug-in menu after hitting the wall the first time, but that's not something that a beginner would knowthey just expect everything to work. The bottom line is that Flash-based sites such as YouTube, Disney.com, and portions of MySpace.com would not be viewable by a gPC user without installing Flash.

(On a separate note: If you have the tech expertise, I suppose you could just download gOS for free from the thinkgos.com Web site and install it on a PC you have lying around. However, if you're that talented, I would recommend downloading the regular version of Ubuntu and giving that a try instead. Ubuntu has more of a user base, so you'll likely find more users running into the same problems, with fixes for them.)

Aside from being cheap and unaffected by Windows viruses, there's not a lot to recommend in the Everex gPC. It's marketed to the Web-savvy under-30 set, but unless you give it to someone who has a lot of time to learn the basic nuances of Linux (or at least how to install plug-ins on Firefox), I see the gPC as one of those PCs you buy as a gift for the holidays and return to the store in January.

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Joel Santo Domingo is the Lead Analyst for the Desktops team at PC Magazine Labs. He joined PC Magazine in 2000, after 7 years of IT work for companies large and small. His background includes managing mobile, desktop and network infrastructure on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Joel is proof that you can escape the retail grind: he wore a yellow polo shirt early in his tech career. Along the way Joel earned a BA in English Literature and an MBA in Information Technology...
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